Literature Review

In an effort to combat and overcome the pitfalls experienced in public procurement and supply chain management, government has made available guidelines and best practice procedures through the provisions of various legislation. This legislation brought about the establishment of the Construction Industry Development Board. The construction board is a means or a method of ensuring that government only deals with suppliers that are reputable and have met public procurement selection criteria. This ensures that the management of public finances are not misused and abused by officials in the form of underhanded business and procurement practices, such as bribery and corruption. However the short fall in legislation is that there is no institutionalised structures established to enforce mandatory procedures and actions within the procurement process of infrastructure. Thus the focus is moved on to the tendering processes and the tender boards of government departments and their role in the supplier selection process and the costs involved in the entire tender process. In South Africa there have been many incidents where tenders have been unlawfully awarded to companies that lack the competence, staffing capacity and financial stability, to meet the standards of the tendering specifications. Although malpractices may have been dealt with through the exclusion of the supplier from the government department's supplier database or the payment of an insignificant fine, as a way to compensate for losses incurred. Another case which may raise a concern is the awarding of numerous tenders to a single contractor (large).The repercussions for unlawful actions are not detering others from also participating in tender fraud. Discourage mal